236 THE VOYAGE TO INDIA 



on to the gridiron ; * I used to hop along like a bear on hot 

 bricks till I reached the remains of the mahogany grove, some 

 200 yards off or more." He winds up to his father with some 

 fun on the blending of the popular and the scientific. 



Lastly, there is room (and to spare) around the garden 

 for a good arboretum and pleasure ground. McLelland 

 encourages Music, Dancers, fish bones, and orange peel, so 

 that the place looks at times more like Alger's booth at 

 Greenwich Fair, the Cremorne Gardens, or Baron Nathan's 

 Elysium at Gravesend, than a place for profit and instruction. 

 I am sure, if good Lord Morpeth saw what I have, it would 

 be a profitable sight. I declared to McLelland, he ought 

 either to confine this to a pleasure ground or lead the first 

 hops and hob and nob on gin and water himself with chocolate- 

 colored damsels in boots and large ankles, that ogle himself 

 and myself on our scientific vocations. As it is, he is often 

 asked to join, and bring Mrs. McLelland to the picnic and 

 Polka. Whatever you do, never let the Pleasure ground open 

 into the garden. 



The rest of his time was divided between trying to finish 

 off the Niger Flora in time to be sent home by the February 

 mail, together with instructions as to the remaining illus- 

 trations to be drawn for the Niger Flora, 1 and preparations 

 for his first botanical expedition. 



1 These instructions are characteristic of his outlook on Distribution. 

 Certain orders had been assigned to Planchon, the Kew assistant, to prepare for 

 publication. Hooker writes : ' Please see that he r.lludes to species in too bad 

 a state to describe, at the end of the genus : or if the genus be unknown, of the 

 order to which they belong ; this is essential for Botanical Geography, and 

 he won't do it if not told.' 



